Porcupine fish jaw

[Max-fossils]

Hi all,

 

Here is a partial jaw of a porcupine fish. It was found in Lee Creek, USA, and I think that it's from the Pliocene period.

Does anyone know exactly how old this fossil is? Also, is it possible to set a species name on this?

 

Best regards,

 

Max

[Troodon]

Chilomycterus sp. can be found at Lee Creek but age is unknown because I'm not sure you can tell if it's from a Miocene or Pliocene deposits at the mine.  

[Al Dente]

Troodon is right about the age of these, they are found in the  Miocene Pungo River Formation, the Pliocene Yorktown Formation, and the Pleistocene James City Formation.  These have been identified in "Geology and Paleontology of the Lee Creek Mine, vol. 3" as Chilomycterus schoepfi, the modern burrfish that is still common in North Carolina waters. It is surprising they would identify these to species because the tooth plates are not diagnostic to genus or species. I have 50 tooth plates from Lee Creek and no two are alike.

 

When I was fishing at the beach this past November there were hundreds of dead burrfish washed up on the beach. Made me wonder what killed them, no other species were with them.

[Max-fossils]

2 hours ago, Troodon said:

Chilomycterus sp. can be found at Lee Creek but age is unknown because I'm not sure you can tell if it's from a Miocene or Pliocene deposits at the mine.  

 

2 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Troodon is right about the age of these, they are found in the  Miocene Pungo River Formation, the Pliocene Yorktown Formation, and the Pleistocene James City Formation.  These have been identified in "Geology and Paleontology of the Lee Creek Mine, vol. 3" as Chilomycterus schoepfi, the modern burrfish that is still common in North Carolina waters. It is surprising they would identify these to species because the tooth plates are not diagnostic to genus or species. I have 50 tooth plates from Lee Creek and no two are alike.

 

When I was fishing at the beach this past November there were hundreds of dead burrfish washed up on the beach. Made me wonder what killed them, no other species were with them.

 

Chilomycterus sp. seems to match well indeed. Thanks a lot!

By the way, @Al Dente , on Wikipedia it says that those fish are commonly found washed ashore, though it doesn't say why... Mysterious

I'll just put the age down as Neogene, because that seems to be the most precise possible...

 

Best regards,

 

Max

[abyssunder]

" REMARKS• - Although many jaws (Figure 82b,c) and a partial skull were available for study, these bones are identical in Diodon and Chilomycterus; the skeletons can be separated only on the basis of dermal spines (Tyler, 1980). The dermal spines of Diodon are two-rooted and erectile, whereas those of Chilomycterus are three-rooted, short, and triangular. The spines found at Lee Creek Mine (Figure 82d) clearly resemble those of Chilomycterus. Because specimens of Diodon have not yet been found at the mine, we believe the other skeletal elements found at Lee Creek Mine also should be referred to Chilomycterus. " - as stated in the document mentioned by Al Dente

 

[Max-fossils]

1 minute ago, abyssunder said:

" REMARKS• - Although many jaws (Figure 82b,c) and a partial skull were available for study, these bones are identical in Diodon and Chilomycterus; the skeletons can be separated only on the basis of dermal spines (Tyler, 1980). The dermal spines of Diodon are two-rooted and erectile, whereas those of Chilomycterus are three-rooted, short, and triangular. The spines found at Lee Creek Mine (Figure 82d) clearly resemble those of Chilomycterus. Because specimens of Diodon have not yet been found at the mine, we believe the other skeletal elements found at Lee Creek Mine also should be referred to Chilomycterus. " - as stated in the document mentioned by Al Dente

 

 

Very interesting!